1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a method and apparatus of managing synchronous information exchange between electronic devices. More specifically, the invention is concerned with a method and apparatus for synchronizing information contained on a wrist watch with an external digital device via a two way communication link. A separate display controller is also incorporated into the watch as a separate measure to conserve battery power associated with the display of time and watch functions.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there has been an increasing use of compact, pocket-size electronic personal organizers or personal digital assistants (“PDA”) that store personal scheduling information such as appointments, tasks, phone numbers, flight schedules, alarms, birthdays, and anniversaries. PDA's come in all different shapes and sizes as well as being incorporated into wireless telephones, wireless pagers and wrist watches. Some of the more common PDA's, like the Palm™ personal digital assistant devices, are equipped with a touch screen for navigation and input of information. Some models even have an attachable input keyboard with both numeric keys and alphabetic keys, as well as special function keys. PDA's may also incorporate a liquid crystal display (LCD) which displays data, text and graphics.
PDA's prove most useful to busy individuals who are frequently traveling or always on the move from one meeting to the next appointment. Unfortunately, due to their hectic schedules, these individuals are the people most likely to forget their PDA's during the frantic rush to gather documents, files, laptops, cellular phones, and travel tickets before departing home or office for their destinations. As such, it would be desirable to reduce the number of electronic digital devices that these individuals need to remember for business or personal purposes.
With the development of digital watches over the last twenty years, watches have been used to perform a variety of different functions, including games, calculator, various timers, alarms, and sport-related time-keeping functions. Support of these additional functions has required more complicated user interface solutions, which have tended towards an increasing number of push buttons. Watches are now capable of serving as personal information managers, wireless phones, and contain other advanced functionalities, which has required an entirely new user interface solution to simplify user operation. Likewise, digital watches have evolved to the point that they can function as PDA's. Like the pocket-size devices described above, such watches can be programmed with certain key appointments, tasks, phone numbers, flight schedules, alarms, birthdays, and anniversaries. Watches are part of everyday fashion attire, are more ruggedized, and more convenient to carry and less likely to be forgotten by busy people.
However, it is much more difficult to enter data into a watch than it is to enter the same data into a PDA. This difficulty is due in large part to the limited space for input buttons and display characters available on digital wristwatches. Most watches are limited to having only three or four input buttons. A user programs a watch by depressing one or more buttons several times to cycle through various menu options. Once an option is selected, the user depresses another button or buttons to input the desired information. These input techniques are inconvenient and difficult to remember. Such techniques are particularly inconvenient when a wearer wishes to enter an entire month's schedule. Although watches have been made with larger numbers of input keys, such watches are usually much too large for comfort, and tend to be particularly unattractive.
Apart from personal organizers, it is common for many people to maintain appointment calendars and task lists on their PDA's, personal computers (PCs) or cell phones. One example of time management software on the PC is Microsoft's OUTLOOK and on PDA's and cell phones the Palm OS operating system which maintain daily appointment schedules, to-do lists, personal notes, and calendar planning for personal computers. This information is often a duplicate of that maintained on the portable personal organizer, such as the various models produced by Microsoft, Palm and HandSpring.
Timex Corporation of Middlebury, Conn., has recently introduced the Timex Data-Link™ watch. This watch utilizes new technology for transferring information from a personal computer to a watch. The face of the watch has an optical sensor, which is connected to a digital serial receiver, better known as a UART (universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter). The watch expects to receive a serial bit transmission in the form of light pulses at a fixed bit rate. A pulse represents a binary ‘0’ bit, and the absence of a pulse represents a binary ‘1’ bit.
The CRT (cathode ray tube) or other scanned-pixel display of a personal computer is used to provide light pulses to the watch. Although it appears to a human viewer that all pixels of a CRT are illuminated simultaneously, the pixels are actually illuminated individually, one at a time, by an electron beam, which sequentially scans each row of pixels beginning with the top row and ending with the bottom row. It is this characteristic of a CRT and of other scanned display devices which is utilized to transmit serial data to the Data-Link™ watch. To transfer data to the watch, the watch is held near and facing the CRT. The computer is programmed to display a sequence of display frames in which spaced horizontal pixel lines represent individual bits of data to be transferred. Lines are illuminated or not illuminated, depending on whether they represent binary ‘0’ bits or binary ‘1’ bits. Each line appears as a continuous pulse of a finite duration to the receiving watch. The watch recognizes an illuminated line as a binary ‘0’ bit. It recognizes a non-illuminated line as a binary ‘1’ bit. Generally, ten bits are transmitted in a single CRT display frame: eight data bits, a start bit, and a stop bit. As used herein, the term “display” means a single screen-size image made up of a matrix of pixels. A display is generally created by sequentially illuminating or refreshing the pixels of the display device.
One of the drawbacks in remotely programming small-size PDA's and watches is that there is no convenient way to easily transfer data between a PDA and a wristwatch. Instead, entire data sets must be carefully entered by the user during each programming session. If a data entry error is made or the user wishes to make a change, the user must fix the error or make the change at the wrist watch utilizing miniature control inputs. Another drawback is the relatively large power consumption requirements of small PDA's and watches with touch screen data manipulation. Prior art devices require a microcontroller and processor to function a majority of the time in order to keep the PDA or watch properly functioning. Naturally, this results in a shortened battery life span for these devices.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a memory management technique that enables a user to access and manipulate a menu driven operating system to synchronize, download and upload data from a user's wristwatch to an external digital devices, such as a PDA or cell phone, quickly and with very little, if any, user intervention. It is another object of this invention to provide a method of watch power management which prolongs the power supply available to a watch with a touch screen display.